This is important. The world’s attention span is shrinking, at least when it comes to advertising. You need to know what message you want to get across and be able to do it simply. If you can, people will still listen. If not, they will just be annoyed by your marketing efforts.

Can I Have Your Attention for a Few Milliseconds?

Everyone is saying that the human attention span is shrinking. People have less time and just won’t give you the time you need to make your sales/marketing pitch. Well, we all actually have the same amount of time.

The thing is, from a marketing standpoint, you just can’t get as far with traditional methods. Thus, marketers blame people for short attention spans. But from the people side of things, we are actually just fine, thank you very much. People are still capable of giving attention to things that they care about. There are just more sophisticated ways of connecting with what we care about, so we are able to focus on them more and tune the rest out. Yes, this does have some negative consequences, especially if we become insular and don’t listen to other points of view. But from an advertising standpoint, who needs it?

Well, we are still influenced by marketing, just in different ways. One of the big shifts is that people will not spend a whole lot of time considering an option before moving on. When a Google search brings back thousands of sites, people will scroll through several quickly until finding one that appeals to them. The ones that catch the most attention are able communicate their message quickly, both visually and with its content.

Your job as a small business owner is simple. Keep things simple. The more focused and clear your message is, the better. If you can’t put your entire marketing message in one simple 140 characters or less post on Twitter, you have too much fluff.

Master the format of short and quick, and you have a much better chance of someone hearing out the rest of your story. Make your introduction your message, and elaborate if you need to. Its even better if you can boil down your message so that it needs no elaboration.

Here’s a hint. Every time you look at your marketing message, don’t think of what you can add to it, but rather what you can cut out of it.

Refine Your Message to its Core Truth

You probably know what an elevator pitch is. Its your sales pitch boiled down into a very short message. You should be able to be compelling in a very short time window, say the length of an elevator ride.

The elevator pitch isn’t just for the go-getter salesman and the super busy CEO. Normal people are just as busy and guard their time just as closely as any CEO.

Think of it this way. If you want to show respect, package your message in such a way that it can be consumed quickly by your target audience. Chances are, it will be consumed while the prospect is in the middle of something else. If its just fluff, it will be skipped. If its compelling, you have a chance to grab the attention of that prospect for a few more seconds.

Here is where you marketing message needs to fit. It needs to fit in a voice mail. It needs to fit in a Google text ad. It needs to fit in a Twitter update. It needs to fit on a business card.

Some businesses hold to the idea that they can just sit down with someone and then they can sell them. Yes, but its getting harder and harder to get people to sit down with you. If you need a lot of time to sell a prospect, you could be in trouble. My suggestion would be to switch to educational marketing. Even then, you need to bait the hook and get people interested in listening to you with short messages.

Here’s a hint. To refine your marketing message, write it up. Take as many words as you think you need. Now, delete all but the most important words. Start by cutting out your ifs, ands, and buts. Then move to your fluffy adjectives and verbs. Cut down to the core words, and then try to craft them into one or two sentences.

Say More, Annoy Less

The holy grail of marketing, in my book anyway, is to be able to talk openly with prospects without them being annoyed by you. There are a lot of aspects to this, like getting permission and providing value. One of the biggest parts is saying more when you do communicate.

Wait, didn’t I just tell you to cut down your marketing message to its barest essentials? Yes, that was me. I don’t want you to say more as in more words. I want you to say more as in make every single word count.

If you can have people hanging on every word you write or say, you won’t be thought of as annoying. This means limiting your sales pitches and making them count when you do make them.

If your words matter to the people that hear them, you are going to win. If they are seen as annoying dribble, you are going to lose.

You decide what you want to do. Either take the time to craft a concise and powerful marketing message, and build an information and education campaign around it, or don’t. As the options for people continue to increase, they will be tuning more and more noise out. Don’t be the noise. Instead, be the trusted insider. And when you are, never waste people’s time with excess. Get to the point, and stay there.

Here’s a hint. Disguise your marketing message as a public service announcement. You can inform and sell at the same time. If people digest your marketing message as information, they are more likely to be predisposed to buy.

So, I’ve just taken over a thousand words to tell you to keep it short. See, its a process to learn to be brief and get to the point. You won’t be able to do it right away, but with time and practice, you will be an expert at marketing zingers that speak volumes. Good luck!

Recommended Reading

I am constantly on the prowl for good business books. Right now, I am reading Crush It, by Gary Vaynerchuk. I love Gary’s take on passion and business. This book will give you a kick in the butt to get up and get moving as you pursue your passions and your business.

If you are interested in Crush It, you can get it through Amazon by clicking here or by visiting your local bookstore.

Have a Small Business Question? Ask me and I will answer it here – email me with your question now.

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Bradford Shimp is the publisher of All Biz Answers. He is also the co-creator of Idea Anglers, a place to see your ideas come to life through collaboration. Follow on Twitter @bradfordshimp. Let Bradford help you with your business – visit BroadRiverCreative.com

1. Do not Auto-DM. Yes, it is tempting to send a link through to everyone who follows you. However, most people find this annoying. People follow you because they want good content and interaction. If you start off your end of the relationship with a sales pitch, and an automated one at that, you are setting the wrong tone. Plus, you will get unfollowed by a lot of people. Leave the Auto-DMs to internet marketers who value quantity over substance.
2. Push Others as Much as You Push Yourself. Twitter is a great tool for promotion. However, if you spend all of your time promoting yourself, people won’t want to listen. Spend at least as much time promoting other’s tweets, articles, and businesses. And don’t forget, what goes around, comes around.
3. Save the Embarrassing Stuff for Facebook. Don’t post that compromising photo or that bit of gossip on Twitter. All tweets can be seen via Twitter Search, even by people who don’t follow you.
4. Provide Value Instead of Pitches. People flock to value. If you want to increase your followers and keep them happy, provide quality tweets. This value play will lead people back to you and your business, so you can keep your direct pitches to a minimum.
5. Answer Questions. More and more people are using Twitter as a search tool. If you see a question pop up that you know the answer to, take the time to answer it. Not only will you be helpful, you might start a great new relationship.
6. Always Give Credit. Don’t poach someone else’s great tweet. Instead, retweet it with their username attached. If you have to, edit the tweet so that the originators username still fits.
7. Leave Room for the RT. To make things easier for people to retweet your posts, always leave about 10 characters open at the end. This will give people the opportunity to retweet without having to edit your original tweet.

Add your Twitter etiquette suggestions in the comments. If they are really good, I will update the post with them (giving you full credit, of course)!

A Twitter chat is when a bunch of people with similar interests all get on Twitter at the same time and start tweeting back and forth with each other. Usually, there is some kind of structure, which is put in place by the moderator of the chat. The moderator is usually the person who started the chat, which anyone can do. A Twitter chat employs a hash-tag code to group all of the tweets together into one search-able query. This makes it possible for third party applications to find the tweets and group them together on an interface that makes a Twitter chat seem like a traditional chat room.

How to Find a Twitter Chat in Your Niche

Finding a Twitter chat in your niche can take a little research. There is a growing list of Twitter chats available here. Finding the best chat is a little like the chicken/egg quandary. If you find a good chat, you can quickly build a network of like-minded individuals on Twitter. However, to find out about the good chat, you may already need a network of those like-minded individuals in place.

To that end, use tools like Twellow to find people in your niche. Try contacting some of the people that you find and ask them if they know of any great chats on your topic. Also ask your current Twitter followers. Keep engaging and stay active on Twitter in your market, and you are bound to find out about great chats, eventually.

How to Successfully Start and Run Your Own Twitter Chat

After you do your research, you may find that there is a need for a good Twitter chat for your niche topic. If so, you can be the one to create it. There are great benefits to being the host of the chat. There is also the responsibility of keeping it going, attracting people to the chat, getting guests, maintaining order, and more. If you are going to start a chat, do so with a good plan in place.

You don’t technically need anything other than a Twitter account to start your own chat. However, you may find it beneficial to create a website to host your chat summary, instructions, and more.

What to Plan For

Here are some of the things you should plan for:

• Time: What is the optimum time to hold your chat. Remember, you cannot possibly find a time that works great for everyone, so find one that at least works great for you.
• Day: Same as the time. Just make sure you plan to do your chat regularly on the same day if you want to build a following.
• Frequency: Most successful chats are done once a week.
• Format: Will you be interviewing someone? Will there be questions for chatters to answer? How will you keep it interesting?
• Length: 1-2 hours seems to work best.
• Rules: Its a good idea to lay some ground rules so that the chat runs smoothly.
• Instructions: There will always be newcomers. Is it easy for them to get on board and start chatting with the group?
• Topic: Will you discuss the same thing every week, or a completely different thing? Its a good idea to vary the conversation within a certain niche.
• Pitch Time: Great chats allow a dedicated time for pitches, usually at the beginning and/or end of the chat. Try to keep commercials to a minimum during the chat. Having a pitch time will attract people to your chat and encourage them to get involved.

Getting Going

Getting your Twitter chat up and running could take some time. Don’t worry if hardly anyone shows up at first. Just put on a quality chat, and the momentum will build. That being said, there are some things you can do to help get the word out.

1. Have a site or landing page that explains the chat. This way, when you are Tweeting about it, you can provide a link for more in depth information.
2. Reach out directly to people in your existing network that you know would have an interest in your chat. Whether or not they can join, they will likely be willing to retweet the chat.
3. Reach out to leaders in your niche. Whether it be a blogger or a Tweeter with a lot of followers, they may be able to help give your chat a boost.
4. Tweet about it a lot in the build up. Even after you have the chat going strong, you should send out a bunch of Tweets prior to the chat to remind folks.
5. Make your updates retweetable. Leave enough room in for people to easily RT the announcement without having to change anything.

Do everything you can think of to promote your Twitter chat. Work hard to make sure you have an interesting topic and a good, well-organized, plan for the chat. If you put quality first, people will find you and you will soon be the moderator of a great Twitter chat.

Whatever you do, never make the chat specifically about your business. Instead, chat about your field. You can pitch your business right along with the other participants. You don’t have to hide what you do, but don’t blatantly promote it either. As the moderator, your pitches will have a lot of weight, especially if you host a great chat.

Get Chatting

Whether you start your own or find a great chat to get involved with, you will find great benefits in the Twitter chat. Be as involved as possible. People will start to recognize you and follow you more closely. You will learn and be put in a position to teach. Most of all, your quality network will grow, and new opportunities will come for your business. So, get chatting!

Have a Small Business Question? Ask me and I will answer it here – email me with your question now.

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Bradford Shimp is the publisher of All Biz Answers. He is also the co-creator of Idea Anglers, a place to see your ideas come to life through collaboration. Follow on Twitter @bradfordshimp. Let Bradford help you with your business – visit BroadRiverCreative.com

Is it Just Static?

If you have a static web site, with a set amount of pages and content, how do you promote it on Twitter? Chances are, you are saying the same things about it time and again. Unless you have a really well optimized landing page that attracts visitors and converts customers, you may want to consider a broader strategy.

Get Blogging

If you want to draw more visitors to your web site and have more to talk about on Twitter, you should start a regular blog. You can feed the blog with all sorts of content, from stuff you write yourself, to free content, to paid content. If you write up things that will be interesting to your ideal customers, you will start to draw in the right kind of traffic for your web site. Combine this with the social power of Twitter, and you will build a real following and have the opportunity to bring in new customers.

Once you have a blog, you should be updating it with new content as often as possible. I would suggest at least once a week for any business. More is better. But this article is not about blogging. Its about how to use Twitter with your blog for web site promotion.

Post, Post

Every time you post something new to your blog, you have an opportunity to promote it via Twitter as well. As long as the information you are providing on your blog will also be useful for your Twitter followers, you can promote it.

You don’t want to promote new blog posts with boring Tweets that just say the same thing over and over again, such as “check out our latest blog post!” Why would you go to the trouble of putting unique and original content on your site if you weren’t going to be unique and original in your promotion of that content?

Pull From Content

Here is a tip to create unique tweets to promote your new blog posts. When you read through your post for a final edit, pay attention to sentences that stand out. These should be sentences that make sense as stand alone thoughts. If you are going to use a service such as Hootsuite to schedule your tweets, you can just copy and paste these sentences right away and schedule them to tweet later. Don’t forget to add a link back to the article. You could also copy and paste the sentences into a document for use later on in your Twitter promotion.

Always Add Value

Whenever you are promoting content on Twitter, keep value in mind. It doesn’t matter if you are providing a link to the most valuable information on the internet, if your tweet holds no value in of itself, its worthless. Your tweet has to say something informative or entertaining or pertinent if you want people to click through to your site. So what piece of information can you share in your tweets that directly relate to your blog article? Think of these as teasers to get people to click through to the main content area.

If you keep in mind the rule of providing valuable content, both on Twitter and on your blog, you will have a much better time promoting your business web site. People flock to value. Provide the right kind of value, and you will attract customers, too.

photo credit: neate photos

Have a Small Business Question? Ask me and I will answer it here – email me with your question now.

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Bradford Shimp is the publisher of All Biz Answers. He is also the co-creator of Idea Anglers, a place to see your ideas come to life through collaboration. Follow on Twitter @bradfordshimp. Let Bradford help you with your business – visit BroadRiverCreative.com

If you are trying to build a network for your business on Twitter, you should be using Twellow. You can find new colleagues and people who would be ideal customers.

If you are a virtual assistant, for instance, you will want to connect with other virtual assistants. There is a lot to be gained from networking within your field of expertise. You will also want to find people to connect with who might hire virtual assistants. Small businesses for example. Or online marketers.

To find any of these people, simply type your search term into Twellow. If you want to follow people directly from Twellow, you will have to create a free account, which simply involves you providing your Twitter log in information.

You can go down the list and decide who you want to follow. If you want to follow top people in your field, simply start with the person with the most followers and go down. If, however, you are hoping to build relationships and get customers, look for people with 50 to 100 followers and follow them. If you engage with these people, they will be more likely to engage back, and you can start a relationship.

Don’t follow too many people at once. Do a few at a time and then find a way to engage with them. This can be a reply to a tweet or you can strike up a conversation. The goal is to establish the connection. You won’t establish a relationship with everyone. You want to find those who are active on Twitter and who are interested in your topic. In other words, find people that share your passions.

Continue to revisit and refine your searches on Twellow. Build networks based on interest and location. Twellow is a very useful tool in your quest to build a worthwhile Twitter network.

Have a Small Business Question? Ask me and I will answer it here – email me with your question now.

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Bradford Shimp is the publisher of All Biz Answers. He is also the co-creator of Idea Anglers, a place to see your ideas come to life through collaboration. Follow on Twitter @bradfordshimp. Let Bradford help you with your business – visit BroadRiverCreative.com

Don’t Let a Computer Take Over

Before we get any farther, let me add a pretty big warning. You don’t want a computer to be put in charge of what you do on Twitter. It is frowned upon to do auto-DMs when someone follows you, for instance. While it may bring in some clicks for your newsletter, it is far more advantageous to connect personally on Twitter. Twitter, after all, helps to make the internet personal again.

You also want to avoid pushing tweets all day long that are either the same, or obviously generated by a computer. No one wants the same tweet to show up ten times that says, “Hey, check out my awesome site!” You should commit to keeping Twitter personal.

Scheduled but Personal

That being said, you can be personal and use scheduled updates at the same time. Here’s how. Use a tweet scheduling tool like Hootsuite to write personal and interesting tweets for the day. Then just schedule them to go out at various times.

You should plan on spending some personal time on Twitter throughout the day to reply, retweet, and engage in conversation. If you never do this and always schedule your updates, you will be missing out on the most important part of Twitter, which is interaction.

The Tweet Schedule Formula

So, how should you tweet schedule look? Lets say that you blog for your business every day. You also have an offer that you want to extend to your followers, lets say a free ebook for signing up for your newsletter. Here is how you should consider scheduling your tweets for the day:

40%- Tweets about your new blog post, with a different message in each one. Make the message itself interesting and useful, whether or not the reader has time to click on the link.

10%- Tweets about your offer.

25%- Tweets that point to another blog post you have read that you think your readers will find interesting. Again, make the message itself interesting and useful, as long as it has something to do with the post.

25%- General message tweets without a link. Could be quotes, inspirational messages, or personal updates. Or just about anything else.

You can play with these numbers to find a formula that works for you. The idea is to include more than just your self-serving links. Not that its bad to share them, as long as they have true benefit for your followers.

If you use Hootsuite, you can track your click throughs. This is helpful because you will be able to fine tune what time of day is best for posting your linked updates.

photo credit: Yandle

Have a Small Business Question? Ask me and I will answer it here – email me with your question now.

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Bradford Shimp is the publisher of All Biz Answers. He is also the co-creator of Idea Anglers, a place to see your ideas come to life through collaboration. Follow on Twitter @bradfordshimp. Let Bradford help you with your business – visit BroadRiverCreative.com

In order to do that, you need to be using the right tools to manage Twitter. There are several great tools for managing your Twitter usage. First, you need tools that will make it easier for you to follow a large number of people but still focus in on a select group of quality content providers.

Tools to Manage Your Followers

In order to properly manage your followers, you need a way to follow the whole stream of all of your followers as well as smaller groups of followers that you can arrange by categories. For instance, I follow two groups of Tweeters pretty closely. They are my Favorites and my Network.

Three applications that allow you to set up groups are Tweetdeck, Hootsuite, and Seesmic. Tweetdeck and Seesmic both offer download-able applications for your desktop. Hootsuite offers and in-browser application, and Seesmic also offers this option.

Each of these tools allow you to set up groups to follow. You can create a group based on anything. You then select which Tweeters you want to follow in that group. If you are a jeweler, you might want to create a group for other jewelers you find on Twitter. Once you have the group created and populated, you will only see tweets from members of that group. This will make it easier for you to follow and engage in conversations with a small number of people.

You can add new people to groups as you engage with them on Twitter. Just because you use groups doesn’t mean you should ignore all of your other followers. It is a good idea to dip into the full stream of people you are following from time to time to engage and perhaps build new connections.

Of the three, Tweetdeck is the most robust and easy to use, though Hootsuite has made some major improvements lately and is also a great tool for scheduling tweets.

Tools to Manage Your Tweets

Twitter is not just about following people, of course. You want to build your own following. To do this, you must send out quality tweets and engage with other Tweeters on a regular basis.

There are tools available that will send out automatic Tweets when you do something, say put up a blog post. While this is nice, you will want to use them sparingly. The most popular of these tools is Ping.fm. Just be careful not to develop the reputation that you have a computer making all of your updates for you.

It is always better to personally Tweet your messages. However, sometimes you just can’t be on Twitter all day posting updates. That is where a tool like Hootsuite comes in. Using this tool, you can schedule your tweets in advance. Take 15 minutes in the morning and write 5-15 unique Tweets for the day. Make sure you write original content for each Tweet. You can promote your blog post for the day, someone else’s blog post, your website or business, or just provide your thoughts. A good mix of these things is best.

Writing these Tweets in advance and scheduling them to send out during the day is fine as long as you follow the rule of being original. Also, if you can, still try to get on Twitter throughout the day to respond, retweet, and connect with your followers and friends.

Tools to Manage Hash-tag Chats

One of the best ways to build your network (read relationships) on Twitter is by taking part in Twitter chats. These chats take place on various topics at various times throughout the week. Search for your niche and you will probably find a Twitter chat that is taking place. If not, you can start one of your own. I will talk more about that in a later article.

The reason these are called hashtag chats is because they utilize a search function that is popular on Twitter. If you want to discuss hotdogs, for instance, you might add this code to all of your tweets on the subject: #hotdogs. The pound sign “#” is referred to as a hash-tag on Twitter.

So, if there is a Twitter chat about car repair on Twitter, it might use the hash-tag #carrepair. The people who take part in the chat all use #carrepair in each of their updates. This way, the tweets can be grouped together and anyone can follow the chat by searching for #carrepair.

There are several ways to take part in a Twitter chat. You could just go to search.twitter.com and type in the hash-tag as your search. You would have to refresh constantly as more people chat. A better tool is Tweet Chat. This tool automatically searches for the hash-tag and refreshes the conversation as it goes. Plus, you can customize various things to make your chatting experience better. A similar tool is Tweet Grid. Lastly, you can also use a tool like TweetDeck or Hootsuite to set up searches for the hash-tag in question and follow along with the chat. For ease of use, Tweet Chat is the way to go.

Twitter becomes a much more powerful tool if you learn to manage it properly. Learn how to use these tools, and you will be a pro at managing your Twitter feed in no time.

photo credit: yoppy

Have a Small Business Question? Ask me and I will answer it here – email me with your question now.

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Bradford Shimp is the publisher of All Biz Answers. He is also the co-creator of Idea Anglers, a place to see your ideas come to life through collaboration. Follow on Twitter @bradfordshimp. Let Bradford help you with your business – visit BroadRiverCreative.com